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Belle Vale
Belle Vale maps
Historic maps of Belle Vale and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Belle Vale maps
Belle Vale photos
We have no photos of Belle Vale, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Liverpool| Ditton| Croxteth| Widnes| Walton| Farnworth| Port Sunlight| Bromborough| St Helens| Eastham| Runcorn
Belle Vale area books
Displaying 1 of 5 books about Belle Vale and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Belle Vale
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Merseyside memories
Growing up in Woolton
My family from many generations back have liven in Woolton and Gateacre. I grew up in a house opposite the English Rose pub and went to Out Lane primary school. We spent our summer days playing in the orchard by Watergate Lane, in Quarry St swing park, Woolton Woods and Camp Hill and School Lane swing park. We learned to swim at the tiny Woolton Baths and I think I read every book in the childrens dept of the tiny library. Saturdays we went to the tiny cinema for the matinee, and galloped home down Out Lane slapping our sides to encourage our imaginary horses, or tying our coats around our necks superhero style. After swimming at the baths, we could buy chips from the village chippie and a carton of milk from the milk machine at Salisbury farm dairy on the top of Kings Drive.
Going back to Woolton now it saddens me to see how run-down everywhere seems. The village centre has been upgraded, but the Kings Drive,... Read more
Tod's Field
I have lived in Woolton all my life, 68 years when I last looked, and never regretted one day; of course, some things have changed but by and large it has retained its unique character. I lived in School Lane(The Old School and the road to Woolton Woods) where to the right lay Tod's Style, a pathway bodering Tod's Field and leading to Macketts Lane which in those days saw little traffic. The field was a wonderful stretch of open land which contained several ponds, trees to climb and ditches to hide in. It was owned by Miss Tod who lived in a big house overlooking Speke Road with a couple of small dogs. After her death, the house was knocked down and the land sold for housing; Chaterhouse and Hailybury Roads are now where the old field used to be. I was sad to see it go as not only was it a magical place for chidren to play but it teemed with wildlife; the ponds were full of... Read more
Historic Roby
All my life I have lived minutes away from the famous Liverpool and Manchester railroad, opened 1830 by the Duke of Wellington, Prime Minister, fifteen years after Waterloo, and have daily heard the trains travelling along the Roby embankment, north of historic Bowring Park in Roby, which was gifted in 1906 by William Benjamin Bowring, first elected Lord Mayor of Liverpool. I cannot recall them ever not running! Decades of uninterrupted train service, from wonderful steam locomotives to present day diesel. Unbelievably to be electrified in the near future. How awful to have pylons attached to that famous line. I would support any endeavours to have it listed as a World Heritage Site, being the first of its type in the world. Thank you for reading this. Friends of Bowring Park are organising a heritage project this year, if anyone is interested in taking part. Tel: 0151 482 1116
Alamein Barracks at Huyton
I had never even heard of Huyton, much less been there until I joined the Territorial Army in 1967. I had enlisted at a recruiting office in Manchester and attended the Alamein Barracks for my basic training in 1967.
In those far off days we wore our uniform instead of civvies when leaving the barracks and I have happy memories of a bunch of us "squaddies" riding on the top of a double decker bus into Liverpool city centre for an evening's entertainment!
The trouble with this was that the beery evening always seemed to be followed by an early start the next morning! Believe me Corporal Stewart's drill was not the best cure for a hangover. Sometimes instead of drill we would pile into the back of a "three-tonner" and drive out to the nearest firing ranges at Altcar.
I passed out successfully and was posted to the 42 East Lancashire Squadron of the Lancs Yeomanry - soon to become 33rd Signal Regiment. ... Read more
The Mayfair Picture House
I left Huyton to go in the army in 1956 and met my lovely wife and stayed in Wiltshire but never forgot The Mayfair picture house. It was Joey Dutton and me who started calling it 'The Ranch' because of all the cowboy pictures.
Alamein Barracks
These barracks were used as the recruit training centre for the Territorial Army and all volunteers serving with the 33rd (Lancashire and Cheshire) Signal Regiment completed basic training here in the 1960's before passing out to "trade training" with the Royal Signals. I completed my initial training here and quickly went on to train in Germany at RAF Geilenkirchen with the 42nd Signal Squadron. Altough the official MOD records show RAF Geilenkirchen closing in January 1968, it continued in service as a training location for the Territorial Army. I served there in November 1968 with 33rd (Lancashire and Cheshire) Signal Regiment on exercises for my annual camp. I recall US servicemen were also based there so it would have been used as a NATO base (AFCENT, Allied Forces Central Europe). As a German speaker I had more than my fair share of guard duty on the main gate interpreting for the GI's, as it seemed the US Army posted mainly black soldiers on the gate and they needed language... Read more
Huyton Village
I can remember Huyton when it was a village, in the 1950s. The Police Station was at the end of Derby Rd. not far from St Micheal's Church. At the other end was Richardson's , a grocery shop which often had a ginger cat on the steps. My mother would buy her groceries here and I can remember sugar being weighed out into blue bags.
About half way down Derby Rd. was the council offices with a War Memorial outside and close by was a small track which took you to an open space with swings and a sandpit.
No supermarkets in those days!
The NHS clinic was close to the underway pass to the station but on ths opposite side of the road, the library was in the road behind.
